Heir Today
by metroanime
Summary: this was a brief fic - exploring a possibility of having things turn out different. ie: what if Ranma stood to gain an inheritance?


Heir Today, a short digest version of a fic.  
  
i don't expect this to satisfy anyone, just give an idea of what it is/could be like.  
anyone feeling up to expanding this can do so.   
i don't own any of these char. those char i do create are available for general use, just e-mail me and i'll  
send you the "Nabfile" on 'em.  
  
-----------------------  
  
"A minor change." Tyr scratched idly at the stump where his left hand ended. Some reports indicated it was his right hand, but then he wasn't the only one that had trouble with biographers, minstrels, and historians.  
  
"You know, where something was just a hair off. A breath of wind, an idea occurring a little   
earlier. Something like that." The black cat looked up at the norse deity.   
  
"Got it." Tyr cocked his head. "There."  
  
"An irregularity in one woman's cycle." Toltiir nodded. "A tiny thing that often has far reaching   
consequence."  
  
"Hmmmph. That's how Thor got himself mortal grandchildren." Tyr chuckled. "And all sorts of trouble with Sif."  
  
"That's why you thought of it?"  
  
Tyr smiled. "Of course."  
  
"So now Nodoka has a brother named Isao. How much of a change could that make?"  
  
------------------------  
  
"Now THAT he had coming!" Genma adjusted his glasses.  
  
Kasumi made a sympathetic sound as she regarded the girl flattened under the table.  
  
The phone rang. Seeing that everyone else was occupied, Nabiki offered to get it. Besides it might be one of her business associates.  
  
"Hai, moshi moshi?"  
  
"Nabiki, I have your information." The voice was male, rough from years of smoking, and quite familiar to Nabiki.  
  
"Ah, Fujitsu-san. You've done the background search on the Saotomes?" As soon as she had heard the name from her father, she'd made a note and done basic research.  
  
"Yes. I can see why you'd be interested."  
  
Nabiki smirked. Fujitsu always insisted on a flat fee. He was honorable, especially considering his profession as a "corporate rat"- someone who knew where to lurk, where to sneak, and where to find the dirt on almost anyone if you could afford his fees and avoid scaring the man. "DO tell. The money will be in the usual drop off point."  
  
"Nothing came up on the Saotomes that was unusual. Samurai ancestry, drifters during the   
disarmament, still own some property and old money but nothing special. Genma Saotome, a martial artist of  
a 'brother' school to your own Anything Goes style. Petty thief, vagrant, more of an annoyance than much  
of anything else. Nodoka Saotome, samurai ancestry, apparently met Genma while he was training. Minor  
nobility, slightly deranged by all accounts. A real odd couple there. One son, Ranma Saotome, dragged all  
over the place by his dad and subjected to the sort of living conditions you really shouldn't drag kids into.  
  
"This was pretty typical stuff until I started getting into Nodoka's family. Her brother, Isao   
Mitsurugi, was apparently a workaholic high management individual. He died three years ago after his wife left him and took their son. Those two dropped off and I haven't found where they went yet."  
  
Nabiki heard activities occurring nearby. Akane angry and feeling put upon. Her father and the sometime-panda were talking about how she decked him - that proved that this was a perfect couple. "Hai, get to the point please."  
  
"Uhm. Isao loved his sister, hated her husband. Seems he had a real thing for honor, especially after his wife left. So he put in his will that the Saotome boy would inherit after reaching his 18th birthday, as long as he did NOT turn it over to his father for any reason."  
  
Nabiki's eyes narrowed. "What did he inherit? Land? A house?" Either could be worth serious money. She began to regret palming the aquatransexual off on her sister.  
  
"Yeah. That too. IF he marries before his eighteenth, otherwise it's held in case his son shows  
up to claim the inheritance. No, what he inherits is thirty percent."  
  
"Thirty percent?" Nabiki frowned a little further. "Thirty percent of what?"  
  
"Shogokukan."  
  
The receiver fell from Nabiki's lifeless hand with a loud clunk against the floor. She stared at the  
wall not seeing anything. She couldn't have heard right. Picking the phone back up, she spoke in the flat tone that people who knew Nabiki knew meant she was in a most dangerous mode. "You are kidding me, right?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"You're saying that the clueless little martial artist jock is going to be a major shareholder in one of the BIGGEST publication companies in Japan?"  
  
"Yep. I'll expect my payment promptly, Tendo-san."  
  
"You'll get it." Nabiki delicately put the phone back on the cradle, smiling a little.  
  
WHAM!WHAM!WHAM! Nabiki's head repeatedly hit the wall. "Nononononono. This sucks. I just gave up MY chance to sit on the board meetings of a publishing giant, my chance for financial happiness, AND a martial artist with a great tush..." Nabiki paused as she tried to figure out where THAT had come from. Oh well, it wasn't as if the boys were lining up at the door. "To my thoroughly clueless financially inept but dear sister Akane."  
  
Kasumi called Nabiki from the dining room. She was planning on moving Ranma upstairs while she was still unconscious.  
  
Nabiki's resolve tightened. It would NOT be too late. She would seize the day! Somehow...  
  
-----------------------  
  
Ranma-chan gradually stirred herself and began to sit up.  
  
"Oh, she's awake." Kasumi smiled. "Are you okay? Don't think too badly of Akane, she's really a  
very sweet girl. She's just a violent maniac."  
  
Nabiki smiled. This was her chance. "Oh good, Kasumi. That explains everything. On the other hand, I owe YOU an apology."  
  
"Huh?" Ranma and Kasumi made an odd chorus.  
  
"Look, I just had trouble with your curse to begin with. It's a bit odd, you've got to admit, but  
if you can handle it, so can I."   
  
"I don't want to handle it." Ranma was a little puzzled. This other girl had just completely reversed her previous attitude.  
  
Kasumi was obviously confused too. "Nabiki, can I talk to you for a minute?"  
  
"Sure thing, sis." Nabiki nodded. "See you later, Ranma."  
  
The two proceeded to Nabiki's room, leaving Ranma to recover in peace.  
  
"Nabiki, what's going on?"  
  
"Whatever are you talking about? He's a guest, and his male form IS kinda cute."  
  
"Nabiki!" Kasumi blushed. "He's so..."  
  
"Young, brash, lacking in polish and sophistication?" Nabiki sat back on her bed and started  
doing leg lifts. She tried to sound as sincere as she could, knowing that if anyone could see through her  
mask, it would be Kasumi. "Exactly. He's so...alive!"  
  
"What?"  
  
Nabiki smiled inwardly. "I don't know, he's so unlike the typical kind of boy I'd THOUGHT I'd be   
attracted to. Maybe that's it, a certain honest appeal to him, he's so un-slick he could never lie convincingly  
to me. Isn't that right, Ranma?"   
  
Kasumi glanced towards the door. A moment later the sound of someone walking downstairs could be heard. "Oh my."  
  
"Not a mental giant," Nabiki shrugged. "On the other hand, he's clearly got the intellectual edge on, say, Tatewaki Kuno. That he hasn't turned into a sobbing wreck with his curse indicates he's got some  
mental endurance as well. You see, sis, he DOES have some appeal."  
  
"Uh-huh. Well, if you don't want to tell me, Nabiki, I can't force you. Keep in mind that if you do  
this, you're stuck with the consequences, good AND bad."  
  
Nabiki watched Kasumi leave. "That's what I'm counting on, sis."   
  
---------------------  
  
"You were both girls at the time, so that makes it okay, doesn't it?"  
  
"Okay?! Okay is not the word for it!"  
  
"Now, now. I bet you forgot to flip the sign again."  
  
"Nabiki?" Akane turned disbelieving eyes to her sister. How could she take the pervert's side?!  
  
"Oh, Mister Saotome!"  
  
"Yes, Nabiki?"  
  
"Just a moment of your time." Nabiki winked at her sister. "Now you feel that the Saotome and Tendo families must be linked, right?"  
  
"Yes, that pretty much..."  
  
"Akane, will you marry Ranma?"  
  
"ME!? MARRY THAT PERVERT? NEVER!"  
  
"And what of you, Ranma, do you want to marry Akane?"  
  
"That uncute tomboy! You must be joking."  
  
"RRRR!" Akane growled.  
  
"Very well, I see a solution." Nabiki smiled and slapped the table. "For five hundred yen I shall solve all three problems."  
  
Kasumi sighed and put a coin on the table after it was apparent that nobody else was going to do it. The things she did to maintain the "wa" of the house.  
  
"Thank you, Kasumi. Now we all know that Akane has a crush on Doctor Tofu..."  
  
"NABIKI!" Akane turned scarlet.  
  
"Oh my, Akane, isn't Doctor Tofu a little old for you?" Kasumi decided to stop flirting with the   
Doctor, leaving the way open for Akane to try to win the Doctor's heart. Besides, Doctor Tofu acted so silly.   
  
"KASUMI!?"  
  
"...and we all know that Kasumi really doesn't like younger men. While I had some initial difficulties with Ranma's curse and apparent lack of resources, I have since learned that he has other qualities which DO have some appeal to me. Therefore, I will be the one to be engaged to Ranma." Nabiki got up in the middle of this speech in order to sit back down, next to Ranma this time.  
  
"WHAT?!" Kasumi and Akane looked shocked.  
  
Ranma looked like he would faint.  
  
Genma merely nodded. He didn't care which one of the Tendo girls married Ranma. If one of them   
actually liked Ranma, so much the better. "DONE! I'm sure your father won't object."  
  
-------------  
  
Months had passed, the relationship between Nabiki and Ranma had solidified, somewhat. Nabiki often taking the role of "voice of reason." Akane wondering what the heck was going on still. Kasumi alternately fretting about this, wondering why Nabiki was playing this game, and being glad that she was just on the periphery of this madness.  
  
"Ranma take love pill, be ever happy with Shampoo!"  
  
Ranma dodged, and let the pill bounce off his head. "Cut it out Shampoo."  
  
"Ranma, stop encouraging..." gulp!  
  
Ranma looked around to see Nabiki, looking thoroughly surprised by this turn of events.  
  
"Nabiki-chan!" Happosai bounced closer, only to be backhanded by Nabiki.  
  
"Uhm, er, eeep, uh-oh." Ranma sweated as he watched Nabiki's expression change from annoyed to the sort of expression you'd expect in a shojo manga.  
  
"Aiyaaa." Shampoo slapped herself. "Shampoo really screw this one up big time."  
  
"Oh, Ranma!" Nabiki said in a breathless sort of voice, she noticed Ranma freaking even further out upon hearing this. "Let's get married right away!"  
  
"AT LAST! Our families will be joined!" Soun began wailing, this time from happiness.  
  
The panda next to him was doing a dance that seemed to have elements of a jig combined with an epileptic fit. [Oh happy day] read a sign produced from apparently nowhere.  
  
Ranma backed away as Nabiki moved forward, and the chase was on.   
  
Nabiki rolled the love pill around in her cheek. She'd spit it out into her hand the moment no  
one was looking at her, maybe use the Chem Club resources to analyze it.  
  
She was still congratulating herself on her cleverness when she tripped. She was grateful that  
this was all at the beach as this would really have hurt if she'd been doing this through the streets of  
Nerima.  
  
"Nabiki, are you okay?"  
  
Nabiki felt a little miffed. Ranma wouldn't be treating Akane or Shampoo like they were fragile.  
Nabiki looked up at the concerned Ranma when a little nagging detail occurred to her. She didn't have the  
pill in her mouth anymore.  
  
For the first time in years, Nabiki was not thinking on any level about money. Usually, out of the  
dozens of things going through her mind at any one time, money was in there on some level.  
  
"Ranma?!" Some little part of Nabiki's mind wondered where the pink soft focus light and drifting sakura petals were coming from.  
  
Ranma looked a little surprised as Nabiki suddenly demonstrated a degree of strength that he  
would not have expected from a non martial artist. Her attack was swift and overwhelming as her arms  
shot around him.  
  
Shampoo, catching up with the two, was amazed to see Nabiki perform a textbook example of the Third Level Amazon Glomp. Making a disgusted sound in her throat, Shampoo went to look for something she coulduse to lever the mercenary off her airen. Oh yeah.  
  
Placing a dozen coins where the mercenary would see them, Shampoo stood a little ways off.   
"Aiyaa. Look at that, must be 1000 yen there..."  
  
Nabiki noticed that Ranma wasn't moving. She snuggled a little closer. "Mmmmhhmmmm."  
  
Shampoo blinked and frowned. A few bills were added to the pile. "Oh, didn't see that. Must be over 5000 yen there. Nobody watching. Oh terrible."  
  
"Mmmm hmmmm." Nabiki squeezed a little tighter. Heaven, she was in heaven.  
  
"Oh my." Kasumi and the others had just arrived. "Nabiki, that's entirely the wrong behavior to be out in public like that..."  
  
"Way to go, sis..." Akane couldn't help but admire her sister's way of taking control even when  
she didn't seem to be in control of herself. Certainly Ranma looked like he was quite thoroughly captured.  
  
Soun coughed into his hand. "Uhm, really, I think, eh, you should probably wait until after the  
ceremony, don't you?"  
  
"Oh dear."  
  
"Ceremony?" Ranma managed to say as he began to fall backwards, not able to keep himself balanced with Nabiki holding him like this.  
  
"I do!" Nabiki smiled dreamily. Yes, he would make her SO happy. And he'd be fairly well off   
financially so that wouldn't be a problem either.  
  
Water splashed down on Ranma and Nabiki, causing his transformation. Nabiki's grip shifted  
slightly, but she didn't let go, her head now resting on Ranma-chan's breast.  
  
[I'll get a priest.] The panda's sign read. [We'll get this done within an hour.]  
  
"Saotome, don't you think a more formal arrangement should be held?"  
  
[Do you want to take the chance of someone curing your daughter in the meantime?]  
  
"Hmmm. Let's at least make the ceremony at the dojo. As soon as we get there."  
  
"Oh my."  
  
"Hey! Aren't you taking advantage of Nabiki being drugged? Shouldn't it be something you do when you're in full control of your facilities?"  
  
Nabiki looked up from her snuggle. "Dearest sister, shut the censored up. Daddy, let's go home. I think I've had enough sun for today."  
  
Shampoo watched as the Tendos and Saotomes went home. She barely noticed as Cologne picked up the money still lying there where the mercenary girl had seen it. She dropped the bucket she'd used to splash Ranma with.  
  
"Shampoo?"  
  
"Yes, great-grandmama?"  
  
"You've got less than an hour to derail that wedding or you'll have to settle for used goods."  
  
----------------  
  
Nabiki smiled at Kuno. "Really, honestly. If you keep anyone from interrupting, Akane Tendo will be free from any chance of being engaged to Ranma."  
  
"Why then, so I shall," Tatewaki Kuno drew his bokken. "For the sake of Akane Tendo and the pig-tailed girl, I shall smite anyone who seeks to disrupt your wedding, even if it is to that foul wretch Saotome."   
  
"The same goes for you, Ryouga-kun. You can both pursue Akane and let HER choose one of you, but that's AFTER the ceremony."  
  
"Nobody will get past me," Ryouga promised, cracking his knuckles.  
  
"Good. We're keeping this short and simple." Nabiki thought for a moment. "I expect Shampoo and her great-grandmother any moment. Happosai, you remember our deal?"  
  
"I get a set of dear Akane's panties and a few choice shots from the girl's showers at Furinkan if the ceremony goes off without a hitch. Gotcha." The aged martial arts master looked completely serious. "They will NOT pass."  
  
"Good," Nabiki smiled and went in to change.  
  
------------------  
  
"If there are any who object to this couple becoming man and wife, let them speak now or forever  
hold their peace."  
  
The sounds of combat in the front yard were sufficient indication of the need for speed. Ranma  
had come out of shock twice, only to be reminded that it was HIS fault that Nabiki had swallowed the pill.  
  
In the courtyard, Kuno swung wildly at the purple haired amazon.   
  
She leapt past Kuno, only to be clotheslined by Ryouga. As unconciousness claimed her, she realized she had been beaten in combat AGAIN. Grand-mama would NOT be happy.  
  
------------------  
  
Nabiki smiled down at Isao-chan. "...and that's how your mommy and daddy married, sweetie."  
  
"And that's how Unca Ryouga and Auntie Shampoo got engaged, right, mommy?" The little boy looked up at his mother, knowing the answer already.   
  
"Yes, child. And Tatewaki pursued Akane all through high school, but constancy was never his long suit, and he continued to pursue the pig-tailed girl as well. And then Ukyou Kuonji, and then Kotono   
Mitsubishi, and then...well he's still pursuing SOMEONE, I'm sure."  
  
"And Auntie Akane and Unca Sanjuro?"  
  
"It's already past your bedtime, Isao-chan. That is DEFINITELY a story for another night."  
  
==========================  
  
yes, this was part of "the Bet" and if you think that Nabiki was OOC, may one point out that the Nabiki at  
the beginning of the series was completely different in personality from the Nabiki of the later parts?  
  
If this wins "the Bet"- details will be developed about the earlier parts, Nabiki finding herself caught up  
in rather more of the madness that is Ranma's life. Akane occasionally flirting, occasionally arguing with  
Ranma. After the "love pill" episode, Nabiki exploring a different side to her personality- less manipulative  
of Ranma and more open and caring. Still the "Ice Queen" to everyone else...then there's the inheritance  
and what everybody's reaction is eventually to finding out that Nabiki started out in pursuit of Ranma's   
future wealth.   
  
  
  
mata ne, minaasan,  
  
gregg  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
